Woman consumes hand sanitizer to save herself from Covid 19, lands up in emergency

Dr Lukas Binder and colleagues at Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria have reported a case of severe gastrointestinal damage in a female patient who had intentionally ingested hand sanitizer to prevent COVID-19.The case has been published in the journal Histopathology .

The instant case is the first documented case of a patient taking hand sanitizers per over a period of several weeks, in order to prevent herself from infection with a global pandemic viral disease.

According to the history on April 2020, a 41-year-old female presented to the emergency department with recurrent vomiting and abdominal pain that had been ongoing on for two days and additional haematemesis for several hours.

She had no significant past medical history, except for bariatric gastric bypass surgery performed in 2016.

During detailed inquiry the patient reported she had intentionally taken 10 ml of ethanol-containing hand disinfectant orally per day for a period of over three weeks to prevent being infected with COVID-19 virus.

The product had been obtained from a community pharmacy and had been produced according to WHO standards.

Upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy was performed and showed superficial mucosal damage in the oesophagus, slightly increased mucosal redness in the stomach, and severely injured small bowel mucosa with extensive fibrinous exudates.

Biopsy sampled taken from small bowel mucosa demonstrated subacute superficial necrosis with active inflammation and erosions covered by fibrinopurulent debris . The stroma was condensed with reduced numbers of lymphocytes and plasma cells. Neutrophils were present in varying amounts and were mainly restricted to the stroma. The epithelium at the margins of the erosions appeared flattened and showed reactive nuclear changes. The crypts were hyperplastic, the number of goblet cells within the crypt epithelium being reduced.

The patient's symptoms subsided within few days after termination of treatment. Control endoscopy performed one week later disclosed normal mucosa. 

In most cases, the intake of ethanol-containing hand sanitizers is unintentional, however, the incidence of intentional ingestion is rising according to the American Association of Poison Control Centre's National Poison Data System . 

The authors said that the present case was particularly interesting as it showed the consequences of repetitive sub-lethal ingestion.

They stressed that ingestion of chemicals to disinfect against COVID-19, even when considered by governmental authorities, has no proven anti-viral effect and carries major health risks.

For further reference log on to:

Binder L, Högenauer C, Langner C. Gastrointestinal effects of an attempt to "disinfect" from COVID-19. Histopathology. 2020 May 7. doi: 10.1111/his.14137 . PMID: 32379368.